XOXO Challenge 24: picture inspiration

Morning! Baby, it's cold outside, and it has been morning from hell with a bed wetter and meltdown after meltdown, and I'm ready to head back to bed already!! It's a great day to hibernate in the craft room, but the job that pays me consistently comes first (unfortunately.)

Before I try to tune out the world to write some articles, I thought I would share this month'sXOXO challenge. We were asked to use this picture as inspiration:

How fun is that? I decided I would pull out my affirmation journal for my business, a work-in-progress that I haven't picked up in a while (interpretation: my printer ran out of ink and I was at a loss for what to do instead of a traditional layout HA.) Here's what I came up with, inspired by the color scheme and layout of the girl and words in the original image:

Cool, right? I started by painting the page in the Eco Green Crafts 5 1/2" Recycled Chipboard Snap Book (AWESOME by the way) white with some Eco Green Crafts acrylic paint. Love that stuff! When the paint was dry, I pulled out a Balzer Designs stencil and inked over it, creating the hexagons, and finished it off by pouncing some white paint over it all. Shimmerz Spritz made the middle "layer" of the page combined with a great piece of MM Chloe's Closet, and SEI cardstock for the top. All that was left to do was pull it all together with a bit of inking around the edge of the page and adding some fun elements.
The affirmation is a mix of alpha stickers and tickets. BG Two Scoops for "My vision," Bella Blvd. alpha for "is" which I traced around with white gel pen, and "clear and focused" was written on the tickets first with black Bic Mark-It and then white gel pen, making the words stand right out. Blue glitter glue also behind it all :) I used a great piece of Pink Paislee House of Three and raised it up with some pop dots, and finally glued a piece of lace spritzed with Shimmerz to it, stapling the tickets to the lace.

Ok, that's it for me. Off to have a big ol' bowl of turkey soup for breakfast to get me in the mood for a little writing (or a nap...I wish I was able to nap right now!!) Head over to the True XOXO Girls blog to see how the other girls were inspired, and show us how the image inspires you by linking up a creation for your chance to be January guest designer!

CCCB December Challenge: Sparkle

Good morning! It's time for another challenge over at the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog, and this month we're making it pretty easy to play along...just pull out a Crafter's Companion stamp and something that sparkles and make something, anything, to link up for your chance to win the Humphrey the Elephant Christmas Collection CD and **3 stamp sets of your choice** from the Humphrey Christmas stamp collection!!!!

Amazing prize, especially as the CD contains over 2,500 elements on 2 discs! Enter any project you'd like...altered item, card, layout, tag, ATC, gift bag...as long as it has a Crafter's Companion stamp somewhere on it. Oh, and of course, it has to sparkle :)

I made a Christmas card (as I need to get my little butt in gear making my cards before the season ends!!) and not only used this wonderful glittery MME paper, I used 2 different types of glitter and glitter glue as well. I thought the Humphrey Mistletoe Kisses stamp set was just to adorable, and after inking it up, colored it using the brand spankin' new Spectrum Noir pens exclusive to Crafter's Companion (available right now for pre-order!). I inked the sentiment with the same color pen as I used to color in the tree branch :) Love these markers! The coat has some texture to it as I used a textured cardstock. I think it kind of looks fuzzy, don't you? The doily makes a great mat (and was sadly my last one...I've been using these things on cards/layouts all year! Sad to see them go!)

I used a silver and white glitter for the coat and a white glitter for the snow and snowflakes.

There you have it. Head over and enter your own creation for a shot at the big prize, and I hope you have a wonderful end of the week. Stay tuned for one more post :)

xx

Khristen

Busy, busy, busy...

...but today I can play in the craft room :)

Good morning, I hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. It was fantastic here, although quite busy. I hosted the big meal this year, and with a 24 pound bird, it was a day full of cooking. It was DELICIOUS though, and it was wonderful spending time with my family. Not so wonderful: the next day full of dishes and cleaning. The day after: Andraia's 12th birthday!

She had a great day, starting out with a special surprise (although it is a little cruel, but what can I do? My brother had already sent them.) She received a flower bouquet from the one and only Justin Bieber (a.k.a. my brother. Andraia doesn't know this, and actually believes it somewhat!) She was a little confused as to how he was able to get her address, and when asked when she met him, she replied "I don't know!!!!!"

I'm sure you can't read the card...it says, "Andraia, when I met you girl my heart went knock knock, and now the butterflies in my stomach won't stop stop. Love, J. Biebs." Yeah, my brother is pretty hilarious. I took a video of the moment, and it's hard to see it, but she turns 8 shades of red and starts shaking when asked to read the card out loud :) It was adorable!!

The new iPod Nano made her day :) (However, in typical 12 year old fashion, she said "Cool, now all I need is an iPod." I said, "But you got one for your birthday!" Her response: "You can't play games on it." Oh, I guess your DSi isn't good enough...)

Besides this wonderful *gag* JB holiday CD, she received protective skins featuring JB for her DSi, a bottlecap necklace featuring his face, the JB perfume/body wash/lotion set (which she FLIPPED over), and a JB keychain. This girl is keychain obsessed.
To complete the wonderful JB theme, a friend of mine who makes the most WONDERFUL cakes (if you are in southeastern NH or southern ME and want her info, just let me know. You won't regret it.) made this cake just for Andraia. It was the most delicious cake (the last thing I needed after all of the Thanksgiving feasting and sinful pies), a dark chocolate cake with chocolate chips inside!! Yum!


After the festivities, it was yet another morning full of dishes and cleaning. Can I just say that I am not lifting a finger today when it comes to cleaning? I'm doing strictly laundry today. Sorry, honey. After rearranging the living room to make room for the Christmas tree and then actually putting it up yesterday (we didn't finish decorating it until 9:30!!) I am exhausted. A perfect day to play in the lonely craft room! It needs a LOT of cleaning, but I just don't have the energy for that.

I've posted pics of the cute little family-themed CD tin album I made on my Facebook page, but plan to take better pics outside for the shop. It is actually sunny today, AND dry! A winning combination for taking pictures of paper goods :) I have also whipped up more Christmas cards I'll get around to posting later, and must make 2 DT projects or else I'll miss a deadline! With all of the holiday festivities, I did miss one deadline...the newest challenge over at Dream Valley Challenges. Just because I missed the deadline doesn't mean you have to! Head over to check it out and see what my other teamies have made and enter yours for a chance to win a wonderful prize. You have 2 weeks :)

Until later,

xx

Khristen